CARLISLE CITY 0. DUNSTON UTS 2 *** FA CUP PRELIMINARY ROUND

 Posted ‘6pm bells 🔔’ Tuezday 25th August 2026

Ground number 79 with Dunston

Gillford Park (Office Technology Stadium), Carlisle

Date of First Visit: 22nd August 2026

Carlisle City 0

Dunston UTS 2 (Ramsey, Shaw)

FA Cup preliminary round

Attendance: 195 (about 60 Dunston fans)

“ANOTHER ONE OFF THE LIST!”

AN OPTICAL ILLUSION *** THE FLOODLIGHT LOOKS AZ THOUGH IT’S HOLDIN THE CLOUD UP ABOVE THE MAIN STAND!

We let 'the train take the strain' for this one---The Tyne Valley line scenic route from The Toon to Carlisle, with much of the line runnin beside the river Tyne for many miles az the 2 carraige train criss crossed it aboot half a dozon times (It IZ a windy river) 

On arrival we made for a few boozers on the way to the groond, which iz on the southside of Carlisle city centre!

🠅

In total we did 4 and the last boozer, woz a private members club, but we decided to see if they would let us in!---They did az the 4 of us, namely, Davy the Silver Fox, hiz side kick Barbara, Tex Taylor and not so little old me doubled the number inside the club!

They aall need the money these days and can't afford to be choosy!

Moan U were on the telly v Hull and the good news woz that Hull were winnin 2-0 in the shock of the day!----We asked the barmaid if she could book us a taxi for '2:15 bells' to get us to the groond on time, (3 bellsKO) which woz 2 miles away!

She ordered one but it didnt torn up, so we frantically phoned an Uber and eventually we got to the groond 10 minutes before kick off!

The Sky Blue bar in the groond anly sorved cans and bottles, so (az yih dee) we put it in a plastic glass and took wor place up on the touchline opposite the main stand, which had stadin cover aaall the way alang!---The main seated stand straddled the halfway line and the end where the clubhoose woz, had a smaall seated stand behind the goal!

The other end woz a flat open walkway which woz uncovered!

A quite impressive for a Northern Leegue Club! 

The game kicked off az the old current bun shon doon on the action!

BUT WHERE ARE THEY?

The sky above woz blue which woz very appropriate az Carlisle City are known az 'The Sky Blues' because of their kit and they had the best chances orly on az they attacked the open end of the groond to wor right and it took Dunston, playin in their red change strip to get into gear!

They finally did and took the lead in the 41st minute at 'The Clubhoose End', when 'Ramma' Ramsey lobbed the Carlisle keeper to sent the 60 or so Dunston faithful into raptures, includin the 20 or so young Dunston Ultras who had hired their own coach! 

HT 1-0 to Dunston

A swift halftime can of John Smiths in the clubhoose and it woz time to heed back to the terraces, or in my case a seat at the back of the clubhoose stand!

Dunston were now into top gear and killed the game off in the 80th minute when a quick free kick foond Wil Shaw unmarked and he ran through to plant the baall beyond the Carlisle keeper at 'The Open End' to double the visitors lead and seal the victory to keep the Wembley dream alive!

We got a taxi back to the train station where the final liquid lubrications took place to celebrate the victory--and then homeward bound on the '7 bells' train back alang The Tyne Valley line!

AALL THE CLOCKS IN SCOTT & BRASSEY SHOWED THE WRANG TIME OF 6:50 BELLS

IT WOZ 5:25 BELLS' WHEN I TOOK THIS PHOTO

“430—ANOTHER SMAALL MILESTONE!”

Gillford Park woz mee 79th groond watchin Dunston in aall its various names, past and present: Dunston Federation Brewery FC, Dunston Federation FC and now Dunston UTS FC (after their sponsors UTS Engineering) Not bad for a part time Dunston fan, eh!

If you include NUFC groonds visited (381), then that total rises to 430 different groonds watchin both clubs! (30 groonds watchin both)---Who could possibly believe that could happen?---Certainly not me!

"WE WOZ THERE!---THE PROOF!"

Fink (the mad-sad groundhopper!)

THE TOON 2. THE LIVERBIRDS 2 *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2026-2027

 Posted ‘5:00pm 🛎️ bells’ Munday 24th August 2026

THE MOSAIC IN THE CENTRE CIRCLE IZ MADE UP OF 500 NUFC SHIRTS STITCHED TOGETHER, WHICH WERE LEFT BY FANS IN MEMORY OF SPECIAL ‘K’ (MIGHT BE OTHER CLUB SHIRTS AS WELL)

“KEEGAN TRIBUTES & PENALTY P*SS-TAKES!”

On a day of high emotions in honour of Kevin Keegan, this woz a game we should have won and deserved to win, but woz cruelty snatched away in the 9th minute of stoppage time, when a 50/50 challenge by Lewis Hall on Liverpool’s Munoz woz deemed enough to give the Mickey Mousers an undeserved penalty by the ref, who took a couple of seconds before pointing to the spot!

Szoboszaia took it and planted hiz shot into the corner of the Leazes net to pinch an undeserved point in front of the half empty visitors enclosure, az most had fcuked off by this point!

It had started off so well az we took the lead in the 4th minute at The Leazes End, when Will Osula played a great baall through to Anthony Elanga and he raced through to plant an unstoppable shot into the corner of the goal, to send the vast majority of the crowd into extacy!

The noise woz deafening, Az woz the booos for Isak’s 🐀 retorn and the crowd showed no mercy az he woz heckled every time he touched the baall!— The most vocal hatred for an ex Toon player,  I’ve ever heard in aall the years of followin NUFC from the 1960s to date!

We played very well in this half az we fought for every baall, and won the majority!  HT 1-0 to us!

The Liverbirds came oot for the 2nd half lookin for the equaliser—and it came 10 minutes into the half, Gakpo sent a precision shot past Hornicek in The Toon goal! 1-1

NUFC responded almost immediately when new manager Matt Jaissle sent Joe Willock and Jacob Ramsey on!

Yoanne Wissa sent a glorious through baall to Willock and he planted the baall into the corner of the net at The Gallowgate End, within TWO MINUTES of comin on!

Wissa then missed a great chance to seal the victory, when he woz clean through, but Allison in the Liverpool goal denied him in the 86th minute!

And then the dreaded stoppage time added minutes and heartbreak for the Toon players and fans alike in the 99th minute!

One minute less than Liverpool’s 100th minute winner here, last season!  FT 2-2

*Roy Keane, who iz hardly a NUFC lover, commented after the game, that there woz nee way it woz a penalty, az the 2 players simply collided in the box!

The King Kev tributes and displays were breathtaking and Wor Flags desorve a big mention for the tifo in The East Stand and black n white cards in the home sections and the red and white cards in the away section! 👏 👏 

THERE WERE 4 DEBUTANTS: HORNICEK, STEUR, DEDIC AND BAMBA WHO CAME ON AZ A SUB, PLUS WOR NEW MANAGER MATT JAISSLE

Attendance: 52,630 (3,200 Liverbirds) The capacity haz increased by 500 from last season and this woz the highest attendance at SJP since we played Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup 50 years ago---The attendance that day woz 52,760

The Leazes End Companions club, ⬆️within hocklin distance of The East Stand reopened after it had been shut for ower a year, due to damage to the roof, from building work next door!  

Anly bottles and cans were available and it will be the same for the West Brom game on Wedinzday!

Draught beer will be available from the Bournemoooth game on Saturday 5th September, onwards!

Great to see it haz reopened, az we thought that it could be shut for good!

Nip in for a bottle or can on Wedinzday az the friendly bar staff await your retorn!

“The boys & girls are back in Toon!”

THE TOON V THE LIVERBIRDS *** TOMORROW AFTERNOOON!

 PPosted ‘high noon 🕛 🛎️ bells’ Saturday 22nd August 2026

What iz sure to be an emotional day with the passing of King Kev, it iz appropriate that the other club he woz idolised at, will be wor opponents at SJP!

A full tribute will take place, includin the away section, where letters spelling oot ‘KEEGAN’ in the red of Liverpool will be displayed!  Not sure what’s displayed in the home sections? 

It will be a really tough game against a team that will be challenging for the title, while we will have a number of debutants in wor side, includin wor new manager Matt Jaissle and hiz backroom staff!

A full match report will appear here some time on Munday!

Meeenwhile, az we type, we are in Carlisle to watch Carlisle City play wor fave non leegue team Dunston, in the FA Cup preliminary roond— On a groond we have never been tee before! Gillford Park Groond number 79 with Dunston!

A match report and pub crawl report will appear sometime in midweek!

Az per usual “Watch this space!”

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!

 Posted ‘5:00pm bells 🔔’ Thorzday 20th August 2026

THE PROPOSED NEW TRAININ COMPLEX WITH TOON AIRPORT AT THE TOP OF THE PICTURE!

News reaches us that NUFC are buying the  Woolsington Hall site near Toon airport are are to turn it into a world class state of the art trainin facility, for the first team, junior teams and lasses teams!

Work iz due to start in 2027 and should be ready for the 2029-2030 season!

This really IZ good news az rumours of the PIF ‘upping sticks’ because of the unfair financial fair play rules, in favour of the Cartel 6, have now been banished!

It will cost upwards of £190 million to build, so why would they dee that if they intended to leave?  Aalso, any money spent on this project WILL NOT be taken into accoont by PSR!

In other words they are in for the long term commitment to NUFC and hopefully news of the new or revampted stadium will be communicated in the not too distant future!

With aall the doom and gloom gannin aroond after key players departures, this does give us real hope that there IZ LIGHT 💡 at the end of the tunnel!

Updated Friday

Loan providers ‘SumUp’ have signed a trainin kit deal for aall the NUFC teams for a reported £15 million for a 3 year deal!

Coca Cola are said to be taking ower the sponsorship of ‘The Stack’ ootside SJP!

AT LEAST 3 NEW GROONDS FOR THE NUFC MAD-SAD GROUNDHOPPERS!

 Posted ‘high noon 🛎️ bells’ Wedinzday 19th August 2026

News reaches The Geordie Times that NUFC U21s are to play on 3 (THREE!) groonds next season, where we have never played before!

Aall kick off times are ‘7:00 🛎️ bells!

Forst up iz at Stamford AFC in deepest Lincolnshire, where we are due to play Peterborough United U21s at Zeeco Park on Friday 13th Novembaa in a Premyaa Leegue Cup tie!⬇️

The game iz in the middle of an International break, so The Toon’s 1st team won’t be in action that weekend!

Then we move to 2027 when we face Chelsea U21s at Kings Meadow, Kingston Upon Thames on Friday 5th March in a Premyaa Leegue 2 game!⬇️ (FA Cup 5th round next day)               ⬇️

And finally we will heed to The Alexander Athletic Stadium in Birmingham, where we will take on West Brom U21s on Friday April 2nd in another Premyaa Leegue 2 game! (FA CUP 6th round next day)

By amazin coincidence I switched on the telly the other day and there was a European Athletics Championship race taking place there!

It looks quite impressive!⬆️

Of course, these games could change at the last minute, which we have foond to wor cost in the past!  For example we were due to play West Brom U21s at Halesowen FC, but the game woz moved to the West Brom trainin groond at the last minute!  A groond we had been tee before!— And of course it had nee cover and we had to take shelter under some trees near the touchline when it pissed doon!

🎵 HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR AMAR! —-HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! 🎶

 Posted ‘1:56pm bells 🔔’ Tuezday 18th August 2026

Wor sixth senior signing of the summer transfer window haz been completed!

Hiz name iz Amar Dedic who haz won 31 International caps for Bosnia and Herzy and he iz a full back!

It’s hiz 24th birthday 🎂 today and he haz signed from Benfica for a reported £30 million!

This iz the 3rd time he will have signed for Matt Jaissle, wor new manager and the 1st signing for NUFC 

He will wear the number 37 shirt!

MEEEENWHILE!

Wor U21s are in action tooneet at The Lamb groond, Tamworth, in The National Leegue Cup!

This iz a groond The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers have been tee 2 years ago, so we will give it a miss!  It’s a 7:45 bells 🔔 kick off if any Toonhoppers are gannin!

Updated Wedinzday

Wor U21s lost 5-3 at Tamworth! 😱⬇️

SPECIAL THANX TO SECRET PIGEON ⬇️FOR THE BAD NEWS AND PHOTOS

“THE TOON YOUNGINS LOST 5-3 AT TAMWORTH LAST NEET! COO COOOO!”

We aalso play at Boreham Wood, Hartlepool and Solihull in this competition and these are groonds we have visited before az well! (It gets harder and harder each season to visit new groonds az we tick them off wor list!)

PS: Wor U21s WILL play at some new groonds this season and we WILL be there, God willing! 🙏🏻

See The Geordie Times at ‘high noon 🔔s tomorrow for opponents, dates, venues, and kick off times!

THE TOON 1. STRASBOURG 1. (STRASBOURG WIN 3-2 ON NEEDLESS PENALTIES!)

 Posted ‘11:13pm bells 🔔' Munday 17th August 2026

VIEW FROM ROW ‘Y’ IN THE GALLOWGATE END

“THE AMERICANISATION OF WOR GREAT GAME CONTINUES UNABAITED!”

If anybody can put the finger on just why we struggle to score goals, then you’ve only got to witness wor farcical penalties yesterday, which were a farcical conclusion to the game in its own right!

Again—and with a completely different team from the day before, we struggled to create any chances—and az for shooting at the goal, —“pass the baall sideways to somebody else!” az I am terrified to have a shot!” seems to be the order of the day!

Indeed it woz Strasbourg who had the orly chances to take the lead at The Gallowgate End and anly luck and poor finishing denied them 2 goals at least! ie: Wor defence iz still full of holes!🕳️ 🕳️ 🕳️ 

And then in the 25th minute a dreaded hydration break woz signaled by the ref, to loud booing from the crowd!  I checked the temperature on my telling bone 📱 and it woz just 19 degrees centigrade! Absolutely nee need at aall to stop play!— World Cup Americanisation at its finest!

The breakthrough DID come in wor favour however in the 38th minute when Jacob Murphy sent a cross to Will Osula and he wellied the baall into the net at The Leazes End, to the delight of the 34,000 plus inside SJP (Couldn’t spot any Froggies 🐸 anywhere?)

A shot and goal at last to put us 1-0 up!

There were nee more goals in this QUARTER!  — The hydration break woz far more than the added on time—In other words, we-saw less ball time in this half because of this!

Incidently, NUFC played in wor aall dark blue 2nd strip, followin the forst qwaataa of the Leverkusen game in wor new home shirt and then wor light pink 3rd strip after that, coz the colours clashed!

In other words we played in aall 3 of wor strips in 2 games in 2 days!---Must be some kind of record!--like?

The 2nd half woz played mostly in wor half az we defended the Leazes goal and sure enough wor leaky defence conceded in the 69th minute, just after the 2nd hydration break, when Jacob Murphy lost possesion just ootside the penalty area and Yassine fired past Ewan Jaouen in The Toon goal! (He'd just come on!)

There woz nee more scorin and just az aa woz aboot to 'up sticks' and leave at the final whistle, an annooncement came ower the tannoy to tell us that there would be a penalty shootout, should the score remain 1-1----And of course it did!---Why oh why we must have a shootout in a meaningless friendy iz something else we seem to have inhereted from  the USA---They hate draws and games to decide the winners gan to penalties!

ANYWAY! Another 15 minutes of valuable drinkin time were used up to watch this farce!

Strasbourg were 1st to take a penalty at The Gallowgate End:

Reyna's shot saved by Jaouen 0-0

Osula skyed the baall high into the stand 0-0

OSULA RUNS UP TO HIT THE BAALL HIGH INTO THE STAND!

Yassine scored 0-1 to them

Ramsey hits a similar shot to Osula and skyd the baall towards the moon! 0-1 to them

Amoungou scored 0-2 to them

Neave scored (Horray!) 1-2 to them

Del Blanco's shot saved by Jaouen 1-2 to them

Toure scored (Horray!, Horray!) 2-2

Demba Diop scored 2-3 to them

Bamba hits post and Strasbourg win the shootout, withoot their goalie makin one save, to win The Visit Malta Cup!

The question IZ—-If Leverkusen won The Visit Malta Cup on Saturday and Strasbourg won The Visit Malta Cup on Sunday, WHO actually won it? —-Certainly NOT NUFC!

One very young Toon fan couldn’t bear to watch the penalty shootout!⬇️

Footnote: NUFC Lasses lost 2-0 to Inter Milan Lasses before the main game, meaning that we had a hat-trick of defeats ower the 2 days!

Before the match I heeded for The Bodega on Westgate Road and the bar woz virtually empty 2 hours before the 4 bells kick off!

Aaltogether there were 3 customers includin ‘me’ , another Toon fan in wor new aall blue strip and a local who iz not a futbaall fan!

To serve us we had 3 bar staff—1 for each customer!

I then moved to Rosie’s Bar which iz within hocklin distance of SJP, which iz normally rammed on match days-  Not yesterday however and this photo woz taken an hour before the main match!⬇️

Considerin the boozers we’re SO empty before the game And there wernt many to watch the lasses— so I woz told—the attendance woz much higher than I expected!⬇️

OWER THE 2 DAYS A TOTAL OF 73,137 WERE IN ATTENDANCE!